This week's top ten of weird includes some old-fashioned high strangeness...
icymi: Every Friday we do a Weird-News-of-the-Week Top 10 audio podcast with a full show notes blog and a YouTube video (@weirdweekpod).
video podcast... uploading...
Here
are the show notes for Fri Apr 28th 2023 / Season 4 Episode 31 ...
Notes:
- in Vienna, there's a plan for a cable car route which would pass over a beach frequented by nudists... this is getting some push back by nudists...
- a nudist named Barbara is quoted in the story - "'I don’t want to end up on the internet,' the 72-year-old told reporters."
- the developer says A) the cable car will pass over the beach for hardly any time at all, and B) the cable car windows could be the kind that switch to non-see-through when the cable car gets close to the beach.
- not much more to that story yet... I would say wait and see... don't panic, nudists... keep your shirt on...
See: (https://apnews.com/article/nudists-austria-privacy-cable-car-3fac6bf2d5d28a51715c9524aa6042a9)
Notes:
- a man and woman got divorced and when the guy moved out, the lady could no longer care for Big Mack, the 8 foot long alligator.
- Oh Yeah, they had an 8 foot long alligator in their basement.
- Big Mack had been there for ten years!
- Turns out, it's perfectly legal to own an alligator in Philadelphia.
- holy jumpins, Big Mack is the third alligator that animal control in Philly has rescued this month alone!
- Big Mack is going to live out his days in Florida at the Jupiter Alligator and Wildlife Sanctuary.
See: (https://nypost.com/2023/04/26/massive-8-foot-alligator-removed-from-philadelphia-home/)
Notes:
- This is a world record giant velociraptor in France, which was traced out in a bicycle route by five cyclists.
- so they cycle this 636 mile route and when you look at a map, you can see their GPS results are in the shape of a giant dinosaur.
- it took 6 days of cycling.
- but why did they trace out a velociraptor? it starts with "velo" which is the French word for bicycle.
See: (https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2023/04/20/france-Guinness-World-Records-largest-GPS-drawing-velociraptor/3421682002544/)
A Guinness World Record has been broken for the largest GPS drawing by a bicycle team who rode around a velociraptor-shaped track. The Daily Mail reported that French cyclists Florent Arnaud, Maxime Brugère, Franck Delorme, Nicolas Meunier, and Jean Roule were all involved. pic.twitter.com/NnkiMTt9hK
— Le Matinal Media English (@lematinal_en) April 26, 2023
❼Headline: Happy Research proves other people are happier than we are you guys...
Notes:
- every year The World Happiness Report tells us who is happy and who is miserable.
- They survey people then give countries a happiness rank ...
- the report says Finland is the happiest country on Earth, 7.8 out of 10.
- Also happy - Denmark and Iceland.
- Israel was in fourth place and the only other non-Europe country that's happy is New Zealand (10th place.)
- Canada was 13th
- USA 15th
- tl;dr 10 New Zealand, 9 Luxembourg, 8 Switzerland, 7 Norway, 6 Sweden, 5 Netherlands, 4 Israel, 3 Iceland, 2 Denmark, 1 Finland, 13 Canada, 15 USA
See: (https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/happiest-countries-on-earth-map?utm_source=RSS)
The United States earns a happiness score of 6.9, which is a decrease from the previous year. https://t.co/y4iFmnJ02z
— Mental Floss (@mental_floss) April 21, 2023
❻Headline: Grey Hair breakthrough... they may have cracked it you guys...
Notes:
- Hair Science already knew WHAT happens when hair goes grey...
- now they think they've got a handle on HOW it happens... *special thank you to all the grey-haired mice involved in this research.
- next step is to stop that process so you folks with hair may never have to worry about going grey! Wait, were you worrying about it? That can also lead to grey hair. Try not to worry.
- that's as far as I want to get into the super-sciency write-up but click the link if you have a vested interest in this...
See: (https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-may-have-finally-worked-out-why-hair-turns-gray-and-possibly-how-to-stop-it)
Notes:
- Hair Science already knew WHAT happens when hair goes grey...
- now they think they've got a handle on HOW it happens... *special thank you to all the grey-haired mice involved in this research.
- next step is to stop that process so you folks with hair may never have to worry about going grey! Wait, were you worrying about it? That can also lead to grey hair. Try not to worry.
- that's as far as I want to get into the super-sciency write-up but click the link if you have a vested interest in this...
See: (https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-may-have-finally-worked-out-why-hair-turns-gray-and-possibly-how-to-stop-it)
Notes:
- they call it a smart gun... it uses facial recognition so that only authorized people can shoot the gun.
- it became available for pre-order in the USA this week.
- how it works... a built-in camera scans your face before the thing can be fired.
- this is so only registered users can use the gun, so hopefully less accidental shootings and gun theft.
- is it good or bad/ will it catch on? it's a hot topic because, politics.
See: (https://dig.watch/updates/facial-recognition-smart-gun-a-new-step-in-gun-safety)
❹Headline: High Strangeness in Texas...
Notes:
- this one is triggering so... earmuffs alert... weird things happening to cattle has been reported for decades and decades...
- it either has a rational explanation or a sinister explanation, or a paranormal explanation... just ask anyone!
- according to a bunch of reports, authorities are baffled by recent cattle mutilations in Texas.
- the cattle were found deceased and were missing some parts...
- like a lot of these mysterious cases, there's no blood, it looks almost surgical, and a few other odd things are reported...
- depending who you ask, the weirdness is explained by natural causes and scavenger animals, or bad people, or aliens/ paranormal causes
- Sheriff's office is investigating.
Notes:
- the Blackpool Zoo in the UK is looking for humans who are willing to dress up like giant birds to scare away pesky seagulls...
- those seagulls have gotten too brazen... they steal zoo animal food and also the food of the zoo visitors.
- interested applicants should be outgoing and comfortable wearing a bird costume.
See Here to apply! (https://www.blackpoolzoo.org.uk/jobs/work-with-us/seagull-deterrant)
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| actual photo from job ad |
❷Headline: Will you please ring the Fish Doorbell?!
Notes:
- the fish doorbell website is (visdeurbel.nl) which translates to "fish door bell dot nl" in Dutch.
- In the Netherlands, there's a lock in a canal... it can be hard for fish to navigate through that canal because of the lock.
- you can help by going to the website, watching the live fish cam, and ringing the doorbell whenever you see a fish.
- then someone will go open the lock.
- do you think people have been ringing the fish doorbell just to see what happens? me too!! (maybe that's why the page was giving me trouble?)
See: (https://theworld.org/stories/2023-04-21/you-can-ring-fish-doorbell-help-marine-life-netherlands)
Notes:
- on 4.20, the marijuana holiday, a cannabis company came out with an enormous weed chocolate bar that weighs 420 pounds... hilarious.
- company is Zen Cannabis... bar is called Big Zen...
- bar has 4.2 million milligrams of THC and costs $42,000.
See: (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/420-cannabis-chocolate-bar-oklahoma_n_643eca5fe4b0482824b81f7e)
❶Headline: Heal Three Times Faster with a cure we've had since Ben Franklin? Alrighty!
Notes:
- it is a very sciencey paper but my takeaway is that researchers were able to heal wounds in a laboratory setting using electricity... the healing happened about three times faster than usual...
- this was all in a laboratory setting and did not involve actual people... so don't try this... this was artificial skin and artificial wounds getting stimulated by electricity...
- I'm no scientist, but it seems like if this gets the all-clear by whoever approves health and wellness breakthroughs... it wouldn't take too long to get this up and running... we already have electricity so...
See: (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230418011121.htm)
Notes:
- it is a very sciencey paper but my takeaway is that researchers were able to heal wounds in a laboratory setting using electricity... the healing happened about three times faster than usual...
- this was all in a laboratory setting and did not involve actual people... so don't try this... this was artificial skin and artificial wounds getting stimulated by electricity...
- I'm no scientist, but it seems like if this gets the all-clear by whoever approves health and wellness breakthroughs... it wouldn't take too long to get this up and running... we already have electricity so...
See: (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230418011121.htm)
